The Reaping (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Album Review

After rejecting an original score commissioned from avant-garde composer Philip Glass, The Reaping's producers opted for a far safer choice in horror veteran John Frizzell, and while safety and predictability would seem antithetical to the horror genre, Frizzell nevertheless turns in a score aptly suited to the film's apocalyptic subject matter, assembling familiar orchestral, choral, and electronic elements to a create a densely foreboding soundscape. By and large Frizzell shies away from shrieking strings and wailing brass in favor of richly textured sound design that underlines the sinister otherness so essential to the genre, even when more traditional symphonic components are prominent, it's the synthesizers and samples that capture the imagination.